✔︎ BAD OMENS, Zach Mitchell ¹

𝐨𝟐. 𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐊

"ALRIGHT, ZARA, I'M RIGHT OUTSIDE OF THE CHOCOLATE COFFEE SHOP." Tatum sighs, sipping on her frozen hot chocolate she bought myself.

"I- I don't see you." The British woman muttered, as Tate rolled her eyes. "Open your damn eyes." The blonde muttered, as Zara gasped in shock. She heard her go silent as she was most likely searching for Tate, before the sound of her heels clicking against the concreate was heard. Tatum peered her head up, looking around the crowded park as her eyes landed on the white suited woman. Tate gave her a wave, ending the call quickly as she stood up.

Tatum noticed a blonde boy following behind her, along with a tall brunette boy, who was already staring intently at Tate. She brushed off her hands, scooting the chair in. "Hi, Zara." Tate give her a thin-lipped smile, as she only nodded. "And you must be Zach and Gray. I'm Tate." The girl turned to the two boys, as they gave her a smile. She put her hand forward, shaking both of their hands.

"Y- you're Tatum Grant. The daughter of Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. Your parents were at the original Jurassic Park." The young blonde grins, as Tate chuckles, nodding along. "They sure are. I'm guessing you're Gray. Your aunt told me you are obsessed with Jurassic Park." She raises her eyebrows, smiling.

He giggles, blushing slightly. "That's so cool. Yo- you're so cool." He motions his hands towards Tate, as she thanked him. "I appreciate that. Now, should we get going?" She quirks an eyebrow, as Tate notices Zara's boredom. The two boys nod eagerly, as the blonde begins to walk. The two follow her, as Tate waves a goodbye to Zara.

"Can you tell me about your parents? I mean, it must be so cool to have them as parents. Have you ever been to their dig sights? I heard you help train the dinosaurs here." Gray says with amazement, as Tate laughs.

"Head trainer, actually." Tate snarks, as Gray grins widely. "You're so cool." He gawks, as his older brother smacks his shoulder, giving him a warning look. Tatum's eyes trail up and down his body, as he looks to her with a nervous smile.

"I'm Zach." He says slickly, as Tate nod. "I know." She gives him a smirk, feeling her ponytail swing back and forth with each step. He chuckles nervously, "I, uh, heard a lot about you from my aunt. You seem really cool." He admits, playing with his fingers.

"Thank you."

"How long have you been doing this? You know, working with dinosaurs?" Zach looks over to Tate, watching intensely as they make their way to the mosasaurs exhibit. She faintly smiles, cocking her head to look up at his taller figure. He seemed to be around 5'10, making her about three inches shorter than him.

She hummed, trying to think of the best way to describe it. "It's honestly incredible. If you told me when I was six-year-old I'd be working with dinosaurs, I'd say you're crazy." She laughed, chewing on her bottom lip as Zach laughs along. "It's pretty badass." He admits, looking ahead as they shuffled around the crowd of people.

Tatum blushed at his compliment. "I'd like to think so."

"So, you're like everyone's boss when it comes to training the dinosaurs, right?" He asks, as Tate shrugs, not really knowing what to say. She wasn't one to boss people around unless needed. Tate guessed she was technically the boss of most of the trainers, being the head of the training. "Sounds freaking horrifying." He mutters with truth.

Tate sighed contently. "It's not necessarily scary when you think of them as not just dinosaurs." Zach quirks an eyebrow with curiosity, side eyeing her as a way to continue. "Like, they're animals; living things. They have their own mindset, own personality. They have quirks and flaws, but they're still living. They aren't the dinosaur bones you see in the natural history museum. You have to be gentle and give them your time so they can trust you into loving you. I'm not just their trainer, I'm their friend and family. I've been with every single one of these dinosaurs since they were made. I'm the closet thing they have to a mother." She would raise her eyebrows at how insane those words made her seem. Zach crossed his arms over his chest, chuckling.

"It's cool." He nodded, as Tate smiled. They fell into silence as they entered the mosasaur exhibit, walking towards the ticket takers.

"Hi, Mer." Tate jumped over to her, "How's Bea?" She quirks an eyebrow, as Meredith chuckled, shaking her head. "Your dinosaur is great. People love her. Want to go into the private viewing room?" Tate nodded at her question, as she opened the 'employee's only door' for the three of them. Tate gave her a firm nod as a thank you, before waving the two over to her.

"Where are we going?" Gray asked, curiously.

"We are going to the private viewing room. It shows off Bea's entire exhibit, along with cameras over the walls showing every angle of the tank." Tate explains, as Gray practically jumps with excitement, racing down the hall. Tatum chuckled, as Zach grumbled at his brother. Tate frowned up at him, nudging his arm for his attention. His face softened as he looked down at Tate, making her give him a small smile. "You're brothers nice."

He sighed, nodding. "He's okay." He muttered, as she giggled. They entered the viewing room. Gray and Zach immediately going into a trance of amazement, as Tate stood with her arms cross in front of the open glass. It showed the top of the water. The monitors to show the underground body of water hung on the left side of the wall, scanning the clear blue. "This is amazing." Zach gleamed, in awe. Gray nodded along with his older brother's words, as they stood with Tate in between.

"Her names Bea. She's still young, just finished fully growing. I never messed with her that much. I wanted her to feel like she was actually out in the ocean. Our ocean dinosaurs think differently than our land dinosaurs. They get more stressed out with people around, as they don't have one sided glass. So, I taught her the basics, she trusts me, knows a few tricks, but I leave her alone most of the time. I can tell she isn't very social. She just wants, sleep and be alone." Tatum smirks, tightening her crossed arms around her chest, pushing her breasts up.

Zach side eyed Tate, clearing his throat as she looked over to him, noticing his longing stare. Tatum raised her eyebrows, as he whipped his head away, looking everywhere but me as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Slick." She muttered jokingly, as Zach chose to ignore.

Deciding to look away from Zach, Tate paid attention purely to her dinosaur. She could hear the announcer die down, as they brought a crane over the water, a large white shark hanging from it, dead. Within 8 seconds, Bea jumped up from the water, latching her teeth onto the shark, pulling it down from the crane and dragging it back down to the water, a large splash erupting through the air. Tate smiled proudly as the boys gawked in amazement, Gray shooting pictures of the shot.

"That was sick." Zach muttered.

"It was insane! How long do they live for? How many teeth does she have again? Oh! What's the force of their bite?" Gray turned to Tate, as she reached down to the coffee table behind them, handing him her dinosaur knowledge book. He grinned with excitement, popping it open right away.

"So," Zach turned over to Tate, fully facing her as she did the same. She tilted her head to the side, asking him to continue. He faintly smirked, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "You have a boyfriend?" He raised as eyebrow. Tate's mouth parted, prepared to answer, as his phone began to ring. He let out a faint curse, pulling out his phone. From her view, she could see multiple missed calls and messages, along with his phone screen being a picture of him and a blonde.

Tatum looked up at him in disbelief, scoffing. "I think instead of asking me, you should be asking yourself who's in a relationship and who's not." She patted his chest, as she moved over to the exit door. "Who wants to see a T-Rex." She claps her hands together.

AUTHORS NOTE

tates slowly becoming my favourite oc